Syrian rebels target airport to cut off regime’s supplies

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BEIRUT — Syrian rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad set their sights Friday on the capital’s international airport in a bid to cut off the regime’s supplies, clashing with government troops nearby and again forcing the closure of the airport road.

A fighter who is part of the push against Damascus International Airport declared it a legitimate target, saying the regime has stationed troops and elite forces there as well as military planes that transport ammunition.

Fighting has intensified in the past week in the southern districts of the Syrian capital and its suburbs.

‘‘The rebels have made major military gains, and have been fighting closer to the regime’s nerve center, which is the airport, for days, systematically chipping away at the political and military power off the Assad regime,’’ said Fawaz A. Gerges, head of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics.

The clashes around Damascus, a city of 1.7 million, have forced the suspension of commercial flights over the past week, although airport officials insist the facility remains open and was functioning normally on Friday.

Rebels said they were targeting the airport in an effort to cut military supplies to the government.

‘‘This would send a very strong political message to the regime. It will be a moral victory, to say the least,’’ said the fighter, who gave only his first name, Nour, for security reasons. ‘‘The battle to cut off the regime supplies from the airport has started.’’

Another rebel, speaking on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said the airport is now considered a ‘‘military zone.’’

‘‘We urge civilians to stay away,’’ said the rebel, a member of the Damascus area military command involved in Friday’s fighting.

Iran and Russia are widely believed to be supplying the Assad regime with weapons through the airport.

Tehran has not given details of its direct military aid to Assad’s regime but has acknowledged that Revolutionary Guard envoys have been advisers in the past.

Moscow has rejected Western sanctions against Assad’s regime and said it would honor earlier signed weapons contracts with Syria for the delivery of antishipping and air defense missiles. The Kremlin insists that the Russian arms sales don’t violate any international agreements.

At talks in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that the United States and Russia are committed to trying again to get Assad’s regime and the rebel opposition to talk about a political transition, setting aside a year-and-a-half of US-Russian disagreements that have paralyzed the international community.

But Clinton stressed that the United States would insist once again that Assad’s departure be a key part of that transition, a position not shared by the Russians.

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